This is the first in a series of articles on businesses developing around, and in anticipation of, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — a.k.a. Obamacare.

Whatever your opinion of Obamacare, there’s no denying that its full implementation next year presents a major challenge for many businesses across the country. Starting in 2014, firms of more than 50 employees will be required to offer health insurance to their full-time employees — defined as those that work more than 30 hours per week — or pay a penalty. These expenses, along with added costs of complying with the law, will force many businesses to raise prices or reduce profit margins, two things business leaders never enjoy doing.

While these mandates will increase costs for many businesses across the country, there actually are others that will benefit from the law. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies were brought onboard early in the healthcare reform effort by the the Obama Administration, lured by the prospect of tens of millions of new customers who would be required to buy health insurance. But if you believe the stock market, another industry that stands to gain from Obamacare implementation is the temporary staffing industry.

Staffing companies like Robert Half International and On Assignment have seen their stock prices soar since President Obama’s reelection in November, as the election made it nearly certain that the implementation of the law would continue as planned. “In general [Obamacare] is viewed as something that will lead to increases in the penetration rate of temporary workers,” says Tobey Sommer, an analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Firms like Robert Half International are especially well positioned to benefit from the law, Sommer says, because they specialize in small and medium-sized companies, the very sort that may be using temporary workers to help them stay below that all-important 50-worker mark.

There’s also an opening for staffing companies to present themselves as experts in the labor rules of the Obamacare law, and as a resource that other businesses can turn to for help with its many rules and regulations. “The increasing burden of these regulations will cause some clients to throw up their hands and say, ‘I can’t deal with all of this,” says Sommer. And when that happens, a full-service staffing company could be the perfect place to seek help navigating the unknown waters of Obamacare.

This change comes during a time when the staffing industry is already doing well compared to the economy at large. According to Susan Houseman, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute, temporary employment as a percentage of total employment is close to an all-time high. Houseman says that the overall weakness of the labor market has made it a buyer’s market when it comes to companies looking for labor. When market for labor is more competitive, firms often can’t get away with hiring high-quality workers on a temporary basis. But with the unemployment rate so high and wage growth stagnant, companies have found that they don’t need to make long-term commitments or offer generous benefits to get the same quality of work they’re used to.

Even if some staffing companies are doing relatively well in this era of economic uncertainty, many still face hurdles with a weak economy and uncertainty about the new healthcare law. Steve Berchem, chief operating officer of the American Staffing Association says that his member businesses are concerned about Obamacare implementation — and that just because certain types of staffing firms may stand to benefit doesn’t mean the industry as a whole is welcoming the law.

“It’s a myth that temporary employees are part-time employees,” Berchem says. While many temp workers won’t average more than 30 hours per week over the course of a year, the IRS assesses Obamacare fines on a monthly basis. That means that if a temporary worker puts in 120 hours in a given month, the temp agency may be required to offer that worker healthcare or face a penalty. At the same time, many temp agencies are having trouble finding insurance plans for their workers because they often experience high turnover and employ people who are high-risk as far as insurance companies are concerned. Furthermore, Obamacare eliminated lifetime caps on coverage, making the riskiest to insure even less appealing to insurers.

As is often the case when it comes to dealing with government rules and regulations, large firms are more equipped to handle Obamacare than small companies. Large, publicly traded staffing firm tend to have teams dedicated to navigating benefits and regulation compliance, so adding another layer of rules and regulations doesn’t hurt as much on the margin as it would for a smaller company. That being said, Obamacare implementation is something every business with more than 50 employees is going to have to grapple with in the coming weeks and months, and the smart staffing firms will be looking to turn that fact from a weakness into an advantage.

The problem has not been and never was access to insurance. Insurance does not matter if cost of care is low enough that people can afford it. Instead of addressing cost of care we have been attempting to shift cost of care. This is a fallacious issue. The reason other countries have lower healthcare costs is because they CAP COST.

These countries do not know how this will ultimately effect cost of care and quality of care because no one has been doing it for 50 - 75 years ( well England sort of ), the real issue is that rather than creating a market place to actually compete for high quality healthcare we have regulated that industry to the point where innovation takes 5 years to see the market place.

Anyway, the ACA or AHA or Obamacare, whatever we want to call it will change the market place. I just don't think it will be better than what we had in the first place because nothing of REAL substance was addressed in this legislation.

i would suggest stay away from bad language, and consider the insurance rates were going up any way, and the obamacare has not started yet.Not doing any thing to counter the big corporation was not a option some thing had to be done.

OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE WILL COST BUSINESS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN COSTS AND FORCE THEM TO GO INTO BANKRUPTCY......IF THEY KEEP THEIR FULL TIME EMPLOYEES......SO .....IF YOU WORK FOR DENNY'S, A MECHNICS SHOP......ETC.....AND IF YOU ARE FULL TIME......YOU WILL BE FIRED.......

IN EXCHANGE FOR AN ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO IS NOW GRANTED...... AMNESTY !!!

DO YOU.....ALL RACES OF PEOPLE IN AMERICA UNDERSTAND WHAT OBAMA DID TO YOU?......OR ARE YOU TOO STUPID TO KNOW?......NO MATTER......YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH.......THAT THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND OBAMA.....REALLY FRUCKED YOU.....FRUCKED YOU GOOD!.......AND TO THINK YOU STUPID PEOPLE VOTED TO SLIT YOUR OWN THROAT. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.....FORREST GUMP.

11 MILLION JOBS WILL BE LOST AND MORE BY BLACKS, MEXICANS AMERICANS, AMERICAN CITIZENS.....BECAUSE IT IS CHEAPER TO HIRE THESE........AMNESTY BRATS......RATHER THAN KEEP YOU.......HOW WILL YOU FEED YOUR FAMILIES.......GO TO OBAMA ....WHO DID THIS TO YOU.......HE MAY HELP YOU....OR NOT......

@pervezbeg Doing something for the sake of doing something should not be an option either. How about just expanding the competition with allowing insurance companies to compete interstate and capping medical malpractice awards. The government can be helpful in the change over to digital medical records but that brings into question how secure your medical records will be when that is achieved. Insurance rates are indeed rising and the ACA was supposed to address that by adding millions to the roles of those insured but if medical costs continue to rise then insurance costs will also.